Daily Archives: February 3, 2014

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California Prisoner Alleges Abuse of Gay and Transgender Inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison


Prison Reform Movement's avatarPrison Reform Movement's Weblog- America: Land of the Free, Home of the Incarcerated

In August, The Rage Monthly received a letter from a gay prisoner at Pleasant Valley State Prison in California. The letter can be described best as a plea for help following alleged inhumane treatment by corrections officers. The prisoner claimed that corrections officers were using the public address system and bullhorns to encourage inmates to beat and brutalize gay and transgender prisoners in Building 1 of D Yard. He named a particular senior corrections officer as the main instigator of the alleged assaults. The prisoner also charged that gay and transgender prisoners were being denied food and basic hygiene, including access to showers, and he further claimed that corrections officers had destroyed the mail of gay and transgender prisoners. Even more disturbingly, the letter went on to allege that gay and transgender inmates were assigned more work details and were being thrown in the Security Housing Unit (SHU)…

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Alabama Prison Was House of Horrors for Female Inmates, Feds Say


Sad, but good story

Prison Reform Movement's avatarPrison Reform Movement's Weblog- America: Land of the Free, Home of the Incarcerated

PHOTO: The entrance to Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Ala., is pictured, Sept. 23, 2013.
The entrance to Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Ala., is pictured, Sept. 23, 2013.

AP Photo/Dave Martin

A Justice Department investigation accuses Alabama officials of violating women’s rights by fostering an environment of rampant sexual abuse at the state’s Tutwiler Prison, where inmates “universally fear for their safety” and officers allegedly forced women to engage in sex acts just to obtain basic sanitary supplies.

The nearly 900 women incarcerated at the maximum-security prison live “in a toxic environment with repeated and open sexual behavior,” the Justice Department said in announcing its findings today into the Wetumpka, Ala., facility.

As part of the alleged abuses, male officers openly watched women shower or use the toilet, staff helped organize a “strip show,” prisoners received a constant barrage of sexually offensive language, and prisoners who reported improper conduct were punished, according to the department.

What’s more, at least a third of the…

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One Word Filled with One People


reblogged from 2/27/2013

I am thinking today about the women who have been my friends and support in life. I am grateful for all that they have added to my life. As I think back it was they that helped me accomplish all that I have done. There is an connection between women forged by survived violence against women, injustice, oppression and we are an important part of American Life. We have stood up to discrimination and put-downs and we have gotten back up each time we were knocked down. In truth, we started a revolution that affects men and women everywhere.

I loved this video because as we move around the world living our lives, we meet so many men and women from other cultures and religions. We all live here on this one planet. We don’t look alike, we don’t all think alike or love alike, but we are all children of the Universe. Love for the One and each other is what binds us together. Caring about all the women and men in the world who are suffering under oppression, who have not medicine for something as simple as TB or Malaria, who have to watch their children starve to death.

The language of the people of this planet is love, music, dance and creativity. This language is what gives us the courage to fight for the best in ourselves and each other.